Have to Have: Digital Strategy

It’s not a great leap to say that a business without a digital marketing strategy will face an uphill battle. But, let’s be more specific. The failure of some businesses and the success of others relates directly to a company’s activity in the web-based world. Your company’s ability to embrace the digital spaces and understanding why and how your business functions better with it, could be making the difference.

What’s wrong with traditional marketing strategies?

Until the web came along ad agencies followed a typical path to delivering a strategy:

Developed a creative strategy to brand and position a company

Locate a media outlet with which to distribute the campaign. After taking a fee off the top, the client pays that agency to select to the best outlet to publicize their services or product

This approach assumes that the strategy approach will work. Can you really be that sure with a single option approach? There is also the assumption that the choice of media channels will succeed. Are you positive that channel was selected based on sales objective and not the relationship? The media sources in this traditional methodology are strictly one-way outlets—print and television ads, billboards, and the like. These forms of media don’t reveal whether a marketing technique is actually effective or just a waste of money.

How does digital improve marketing strategies?

Beyond the sheer volume of the consumers on the web, digital marketing companies provide clients with extremely valuable information about how effectively your campaign has attracted consumers, who these consumers are, and if this attention has directly resulted in an increase in sales.

Two-way media has changed the face of consumer marketing, businesses now have the ability to be a dynamic in there response to the marketplace and their customers by with digital media and real data at the core of the decision making.

Within the past few years, social networks have provided a wealth of information to companies regarding consumer preferences and feedback. Studies have revealed that product referral and reliability is by far more important to consumers than advertising appeal. The opportunity for businesses to interact so closely with consumers has provided a window for companies to find out what consumers want and then give it to them.

Prove it you say?

As opposed to the old model wherein an advertising agency devises a slogan and tells you what they think you should think, digital marketing companies do a couple of things differently.